DAVIS COUNTY — Several Davis County students had first-place finishes at a technology competition held in Nashville, Tenn. last month. Alex Eldredge of Layton took first in the nation for Technical Sketching at the Technology Student Association national competition.

Zack Zundel from Farmington Junior High also earned a first place finish in the written portion of the Tech Bowl competition. In addition, Josh Wilson and Spencer Griffin of Syracuse High won the national VEX robotics challenge to design, build and compete with a robot in a variety of tasks.

“It totally took me by surprise,” said Eldredge of his win. The recent Layton High graduate earned his spot at the event after placing first in state.

The first phase of his competition was a 90-minute written drafting test that whittled the competition down from 147 to 12. The top 12 then had another hour and a half for a drafting project.

Zundel, competing with other students in the junior high division, said it was not really possible to study for the Tech Bowl. “You just pretty much had to know everything,” he said.

Questions ranged from: “Who coined the term ‘nanotubes’?” to “How many kilobytes are in a megabyte?” They included: “What is the universal solvent?” “What type of bridge is the Golden Gate?” and “What is the science of measuring humans called?”

Zundel loved his experience at the competition and said his school, coached by Farmington Junior High teacher Joy Bowler, had the most finalists attend from any school in Utah.

The young man hopes to run for state and then federal office in the association.

Tim Feltner, Eldredge’s teacher at Layton High, challenges students to use creativity and problem-solving skills, working before or after school in the engineering lab to succeed in the “rigorous” coursework.

Feltner said the students worked for nine months to prepare for the competition.

Eldredge hopes to find a job in drafting before going on an LDS mission. He is considering engineering as a college major.